[vox-tech] wincast tv: video4linux and copying movies

R. Douglas Barbieri vox-tech@lists.lugod.org
Mon, 13 Oct 2003 23:47:38 -0700


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On Mon, Oct 13, 2003 at 11:43:12PM -0700, Mark K. Kim wrote:
> I think samplerate is for audio and fps is for video.  I recommand keeping
> fps at 15 (or higher, if your system can handle it) and samplerate low.
> It should be decent.
>=20
> Because the avi created by xawtv has no compression, you'll need to
> compress it after generating the video.  mplayer comes with a program
> called mencoder that's *really* nice for that purpose.  After a successful
> installation of mplayer with all of Windows codecs, you can generate a
> small MPEG4 avi with something like this:
>=20
>    in=3Dinput.avi
>    out=3Doutput.avi
>=20
>    for p in 1 2
>    do
>       mencoder $in -channels 1 -srate 11025 -oac copy \
>          -ovc lavc -lavcopts \
>          vcodec=3Dmsmpeg4:vbitrate=3D496:vpass=3D$p -o $out
>    done
>=20
> You can also compresses audio with lame (see the man page for the -oac
> option) but I'm not sure how legal that is.  Anyway, the above is a
> two-pass system and a webpage I've read recommended that technique but
> there are other ways to make it happen, too.  The above is just one way.
> Play with the bitrate for better quality.
>=20
> I hope that helps!

Also check out the mjpegtools, ffmpeg and transcode. I'll post the URLs
and sample shell scripts tomorrow when I boot up my video processing
machine. Right now, I'm heading to bed. :-)

> -Mark
>=20
>=20
> On Mon, 13 Oct 2003 p@dirac.org wrote:
>=20
> > ok, i've been playing around with this for awhile, and the results are
> > not great.  i recorded the opening theme of southpark under different
> > settings.  the default settings of:
> >
> >    samplerate: 44100
> >    frames: 12 fps
> >
> > produce a file of 72MB for about 26s of video.  the video is bad,
> > but watchable if i'm jonesing for southpark.  if it weren't a cartoon,
> > it would truly be unwatchable.
> >
> > i bumped the sample rate up to 48000, however both the video quality and
> > filesize don't change.  what exactly is the difference between
> > samplerate and fps anyhow?  so then i bumped it up:
> >
> >    samplerate: 44100
> >    frames: 20 fps
> >
> > the video quality was ok.  certainly watchable, but not "high quality"
> > by any stretch of the imagination.  the filesize is 120MB for 26s.  i'm
> > already at about 1/6 - 1/7 of the capacity of a CD.  there's no way a 20
> > minute video will fit on a CD.  just out of curiosity, i bumped it up
> > again to:
> >
> >    samplerate: 44100
> >    frames: 30 fps
> >
> > the video was good, but still not high quality.  the filesize is a
> > whopping 183MB for 26s.  my computer (1.4MHz athlon) is working hard to
> > keep sync with audio.
> >
> >
> > i just upgraded my kernel to 2.4.22, and didn't bother installing the
> > low latency patch this time around.  i guess i can try that tomorrow
> > evening.
> >
> > i'm a little disheartened.  quake3 can get to very high framerates with
> > ease; my machine does q3 very nicely.  but then again, that's all
> > hardware accelerated opengl stuff.
> >
> > but in any event, it's filesize that seems to be the show stopper here.
> > at this rate, a 20min video will take somewhere between 5GB and 8GB.
> > this is unreasonable.
> >
> >
> >
> > i'm exhausted and about to call it a night.  does anybody have
> > suggestions on how to get good quality video at reasonable filesize?
> >
> > should i be working in a format other than AVI?
> >
> > pete
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon 13 Oct 03,  9:06 PM, Mark K. Kim <markslist@cbreak.org> said:
> > > I think the driver needs to support saving videos.
> > >
> > > Assuming it does, run xawtv with -noxv option, 'cuz it can't save vid=
eos
> > > when the video is coming through the xvideo extension.  Then select
> > > "Record Movie" from the menu, then change "movie driver: multiple ima=
ge
> > > files" to one of the valid movie formats.  Supply the "movie/images
> > > filename", then click "start/stop recording."  That works for me but I
> > > don't use hauppauge so...
> > >
> > > Good luck!
> > >
> > > -Mark
> > >
> > >
> > > On Mon, 13 Oct 2003 p@dirac.org wrote:
> > >
> > > > hi all,
> > > >
> > > > i owned a microsoft OS for a few weeks before switching to linux.  =
in
> > > > those few weeks, i bought a hauppauge wincast TV card.  it worked
> > > > marginarlly well, but the driver had "issues".
> > > >
> > > > anyway, i installed linux soon after and completely forgot about the
> > > > card, giving up on it ever being supported by linux.  that was back=
 in
> > > > the redhat 5.1 days, and supported hardware was ... sparse.
> > > >
> > > > anyway, i recently came across the card and did some research.  it'=
s now
> > > > supported by linux!  hooray!  after...
> > > >
> > > > reading ~linux/Documentation/video4linux/bttv
> > > > recompiling the kernel
> > > > figuring out how to connect the card to my soundcard
> > > > playing with sound settings
> > > > hooking the card up to my VCR
> > > >
> > > > i got the card to work.  it took a bit long to get working under li=
nux,
> > > > but it's much less flakey.  the windows driver crashed very often,
> > > > making the card painful to use (one of the reasons why i forgot abo=
ut
> > > > the card).
> > > >
> > > > anyway, i want to put some of my old VCR tapes onto hard drive and
> > > > perhaps eventually burn them to DVD.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > has anybody ever done this?  i can use xawtv to watch my tapes, but=
 for
> > > > some reason, it doesn't want to record.  it refuses to record the m=
ovie
> > > > to disk (although i can get screenshots).
> > > >
> > > > i'm about to go to freshmeat, but if anybody does this kind of thin=
g,
> > > > i'd like to hear what you use and about your experiences with this =
kind
> > > > of software.  i'm a TOTAL newbie with video on linux, but i'd like =
to
> > > > get acquainted with it.
> > > >
> > > > thanks!
> > > > pete
> >
> > --
> > GPG Instructions: http://www.dirac.org/linux/gpg
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> > _______________________________________________
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> > vox-tech@lists.lugod.org
> > http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox-tech
> >
>=20
> --=20
> Mark K. Kim
> http://www.cbreak.org/
> PGP key available on the website
> PGP key fingerprint: 7324 BACA 53AD E504 A76E  5167 6822 94F0 F298 5DCE
>=20
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--=20
R. Douglas Barbieri
doug@dooglio.net
http://www.dooglio.net

vi: "The way God meant for man to edit text files..."

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